Rooftop park and ski slope on Amager Bakke waste-to-energy plant set to open in April

The rooftop park and artificial ski slope that will top Bjarke Ingels Group’s (BIG) Amager Bakke waste-to-energy plant, in operation since 2017, is set to open in April. In addition to the BIG-designed ski slope, the rooftop will also feature a nature-filled park, designed by SLA Architects.

The artificial ski slope is being created with a product from Neveplast, a company that creates dry ski slopes. The slope will feature various shades of green that will be a lighter shade in the middle and become progressively darker near the edges. The ski slope will start its approximately 1,640-foot-long run at the tallest point of the 290-foot-tall building’s roof. It will run to the power plant’s base and feature two turns equaling 180 degrees.

The accompanying park will include hiking trails, climbing walls, trail running, vantage points, and playgrounds. After experimenting with a wide range of nature-based design solutions, SLA specially selected different nature biotropes to withstand some of the difficult living conditions the building presented, such as the complicated wind and weather conditions found 290 feet in the air and heat from the large energy boilers under the roof.

Courtesy SLA.

The nature will not just be contained to the power plant’s roof, as it has been designed to spread biodiversity to the surrounding area. “The rooftop’s nature is designed to attract and shelter a wide selection of birds, bees, butterflies and insects, which in itself will mean a dramatic increase in the biodiversity of the area. And utilizing natural pollination and seed dispersal will mean that we can spread the rooftop nature to also benefit the adjacent industry area, parking lots, and infrastructure. In this way, Amager Bakke will function as a generous ‘green bomb’ that will radically green-up the entire area,” said Rasmus Astrup, Partner and Project Director, SLA, in a release.

The dry ski slope and elements of the neighboring park are currently being installed and tested ahead of the planned April opening.

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